Artistic and Moral Imagination in The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes1

This essay provides a close reading of The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes. It argues that the story’s two themes—a celebration of artistic creativity and a ringing denunciation of prejudice—are closely related through their reliance on the importance of imagination, both artistic and moral. The role of moral perception in ethical decision making has recently come under new scrutiny in moral philosophy. This essay employs recent work in moral theory to analyze the way in which the resolution of Estes’s story turns on the characters’ growth in both moral courage and moral imagination.